• Earlier this season Blake Treinen was dealing with some elbow discomfort and now he has been placed on the IL with a shoulder issue. The A’s are calling it minor but in the meantime Liam Hendricks is expected to fill in as closer as he secured his first save last night, pitching a perfect 9th while striking out a pair. Some muscle memory with Joakim Soria on the grid in recent years almost made me throw him below but Yusmeiro Petit pitched 1.1 innings with 4 strikeouts in the 7th and 8th and has been a little more effective than Soria this year. Lou Trivino was expected to be next in line for Oakland, but he’s been struggling himself of late and Hendricks leapfrogged him in the pecking order. Whether Hendricks is closing for a couple of weeks or more will depending on how Treinen recovers. I’m clearly now doctor but it’s also clear that Treinen has not quite been himself this year even if his velocity has maintained.

• We mentioned Diego Castillo’s recent struggles yesterday and those continued with Castillo allowing two runs and four baserunners in the 7th inning last night, getting his 6th loss this season. The Rays have always been in a committee so its still a three-headed closrer with Castillo, Jose Alvarado, and Emilio Pagan but the preferred order of operations isn’t necessarily known. With Castillo’s struggles (11 runs in his last 9 appearances) I have put Alvarado atop the committee even though he has dealt with his own struggles this season. I don’t feel confident enough to say Pagan has jumped into the lead but if he keeps throwing like he has been that could happen.

• Naturally after I take off the committee tag for the Twins, Taylor Rogers is used in the 8th inning and blows the lead. After the Twins scored in the top of the 10th to take the lead Blake Parker was used in the bottom half, throwing a perfect inning for his 10th save. I am going to sadly reapply the committee tag here as the Twins will still throw their best option in the earlier innings on occasion, but Rogers is still by far the best reliever to own in Minnesota.

• Jose Leclerc pitched in the 8th inning last night, throwing a scoreless frame dropping his ERA to 4.72. Although he has an elevated ERA his 3.07 SIERA and 3.58 xFIP are closer to in line with what we expected from him this year. With that said, Leclerc still isn’t getting saves yet in Texas with Chris Martin getting the nod for the 9th instead of Shawn Kelley last night. Martin pitched a clean inning for his 3rd save. With Leclerc looming it feels silly for Texas to anoint Chris Marin as the closer but it seems as though he and Kelley could be co-closers moving forward. With that said, Kelley has struggled of late so a change wouldn’t be surprising. Leclerc had a few poor outings in a row in early June but in spite of that, since May 12th he has a 1.58 SIERA, 41.9% K-BB%, and a 16.1% SwStr%. Leclerc will never have particularly good control but he’s back to missing bats again and I would bet the over on his rest-of-season saves compared to Kelley+Martin.

• Quick Hits: Will Smith remains an obvious trade deadline candidate but amidst that he keeps shutting down the 9th, getting 20th save last night. With Aroldis Chapman getting a break, Zack Britton recorded his 3rd save. Britton’s experience (and contract) might place him next in line in New York but he walked three batters last night and overall hasn’t been particularly effective, with Adam Ottavino the obvious best reliever behind Chapman. Josh Hader threw two perfect innings for his 18th save, Brad hand (22), Felipe Vazquez (19), and Ken Giles (12) all recorded saves as well.

• With Diego Castillo having been used in the previous games (while also struggling a bit) the Rays continued their committee with Emilio Pagan getting the last two outs for his 4th save of the year. Oliver Drake got the last out in the 8th and the first of the 9th but was relieved for Pagan after allowing a walk. Jose Alvarado has been out of commission for personal reasons but threw a bullpen session this week and should be back in action soon. We still have Castillo first in the pecking order but if his struggles continue, Alvarado or Pagan could leapfrog. All three had more appealing ratios earlier this season but they’re all effective relievers and could all be owned, especially in leagues counting holds.

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The showdown between Frankie Montas and Charlie Morton on Thursday night lived up to expectations. Montas dominated the Rays for eight innings, allowing just one run (on a Tommy Pham solo shot), while a Jurickson Profar solo homer was the only run allowed by Morton over 6.1 innings. Emilio Pagan relieved Morton and kept the game knotted at 1-1, giving the Rays’ offense a chance to take the lead against Athletics closer Blake Treinen.

Instead of the game being defined by a matchup of two of the American League’s best starters, it became a story of two struggling closers. Treinen began the top of the ninth inning by walking Pham and Brandon Lowe, and then the Rays pounced with a double steal and back-to-back RBI singles by Avisail Garcia and Ji-Man Choi. That was it for Treinen: four batters, two runs scored, no outs. He was relieved by Ryan Buchter, who let Garcia score on a one-out Willy Adames sacrifice bunt.
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• Since returning from the IL, Wade Davis has been very ineffective, leading to a deserved red band in the grid below. The Rockies haven’t made any changes yet of course and called on Davis in the 9th last night for the save. Davis got his 9th save while striking out a pair, but not before allowing a solo shot to Kevin Cron. It’s nice to see Davis get the save and a couple of whiffs but since his return he’s allowed 8 runs in 6 appearances and a very meager 7.1% Swinging Strike rate. Although he got the save, Davis will have to start putting up zeros to hold the job or a potential return to the IL.

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Tuesday night’s slate did not lack for saves, as Kirby Yates (26), Shane Greene (21), Aroldis Chapman (19), Alex Colome (15) and Hansel Robles (11) were among the closers who added to their save totals. In a break from the normal pattern, there just wasn’t much in the way of late-inning relief events that were notable for fantasy owners.

The one head-turning closer development was David Bell’s use of Michael Lorenzen in a save situation for the second night in a row. While it looks like a new pattern is emerging for the Reds, the circumstances of Lorenzen’s two saves were entirely different. In Monday night’s 3-2 win over the Astros, Raisel Iglesias was ostensibly in line for a five-out save, but after walking Myles Straw and popping up Alex Bregman to start off the ninth inning, the Reds’ closer had thrown only 10 strikes in 21 pitches. With tough lefties Michael Brantley and Yordan Alvarez due up, Bell decided to make a change, going with Lorenzen. While Iglesias had allowed lefties to slug .556 against him, Lorenzen had a more muted .415 SLG allowed versus left-handed hitters. Lorenzen retired both batters for his third save.
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Owning Raisel Iglesias comes with its ups and downs. His multiple inning usage can cap save totals year to year, but he’s saved 71 since the start of 2017. Last night, Iglesias once again struggled with his command leading to his removal from the game in the ninth inning without recording a save. Instead, Iglesias gets his second hold of the season to the dismay of his owners. In the eighth inning, Iglesias entered with a runner on base and one out. He induced a pop out to shortstop by Robinson Chirinos but walked Tyler White in the next at-bat. Iglesias ended the inning on a Tony Kemp ground out and returned for the ninth inning. But, he walked lead-off hitter Myles Straw then retired Alex Bregman on a pop out to first base. Read the rest of this entry »

It has now been 10 days since Wade Davis ended his stay on the IL with an oblique injury, and he has appeared five times for the Rockies since then. Enough time has passed that it’s fair to say that the warning signs that were present for Davis before going on the IL have not gotten any weaker.

In Davis’ three outings before getting shelved, he had given up three runs on five hits and a pair of walks over three innings, and the average velocity on his fastball was 93.3 mph, as compared to 94.1 mph prior to that stretch. Since returning from his injury, Davis has allowed seven runs on nine hits and three walks over 4.1 innings, and his average fastball velocity has dipped a little further to 92.9 mph.
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First and foremost, Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads. Like many of our fathers, high leverage never seem to take a break, hence the existence of this column. Starting in New York, once again, Edwin Diaz struggled with traffic, but held on for his 15th save against St. Louis. It started with a one out single Paul DeJong. Diaz bounced back to strikeout Marcell Ozuna and DeJong moved to second uncontested with two outs. Savvy veteran Yadier Molina singled to score DeJong moving the Cardinals within one and departed for pinch runner Jack Flaherty. Kolten Wong then laced a double with the game ending with Flaherty getting thrown out at home. Diaz yielded three hits but only one earned run and he’s allowed runs in back-to-back appearances. His struggled run deeper though giving up eight earned runs over his last 6.2 innings and a 5.06 ERA since May first. Read the rest of this entry »

Another packed Friday night of high leverage events makes for a busy Saturday trying to sift through them. Starting with a wild game in Coors Field, the Rockies blew a seven run lead after the seventh inning, the largest blown lead, win or lose, since June 15th of 2017 according to Elias Sports. Mike Dunn started the ninth inning with the Rockies ahead by six. However, he served up four hits, including a three-run home run to Hunter Renfroe, before departing with four runs against while recording one out. Wade Davis entered allowing back-to-back singles to Wil Myers and Ian Kinsler before getting Austin Hedges to lineout. But, a wild pitch during Manuel Margot’s at-bat ending up in a walk loaded the bases for a Fernando Tatis Jr. two-RBI single before ending the inning with a strikeout of Josh Naylor. Read the rest of this entry »

Alex Colome has been perfect in his 14 save opportunities with the White Sox this season, and if not for having thrown 39 pitches against the Nationals on Tuesday, he almost certainly would have had a crack at his 15th save on Thursday against the Yankees. However, with Colome apparently unavailable, Rick Renteria gave us a possible preview of what the bullpen pecking order could look like if (or more likely when) Colome is traded.

The game was tied, 4-4, heading into the top of the seventh inning, and Renteria gave the inning to Evan Marshall. After keeping the Yankees off the board (Marshall is now up to 16.1 innings with a 0.00 ERA), the White Sox grabbed the lead in the bottom of the seventh with a Leury Garcia leadoff home run off Adam Ottavino. Kelvin Herrera took over in the eighth inning and received his sixth hold. Aaron Bummer, who has recently moved into an eighth-inning setup role, came in for the save and allowed nothing more than a Clint Frazier single. The save was the first of Bummer’s career.
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